Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan. 17
By Emin Aliyev - Trend:
The total loan portfolio of VTB Bank (Azerbaijan) in 2013 increased 2.6 times and reached 187.9 million manats, chairman of the bank's board, Alexander Eremin said on Jan. 17 at a press conference dedicated to the results of the bank's activities in 2013 and plans for the future.
"I would like to particularly note that the loan portfolio is about 90 percent of total assets, and not every bank can boast about this," Eremin said.
He added the last year was marked by significant growth in all directions of the loan portfolio of the bank.
"So, during the year the portfolio of corporate business increased 1.7 times, small business - 3.3 times, the retail business - 2.7, which is significantly higher than the average rate for the entire banking sector. Naturally, this is explained by the bank's small size, but nevertheless these are very significant figures," Eremin said.
At the same time, he said, the bank has retained good quality in its loan portfolio.
"The level of non-performing loans has not changed during the year and amounted to less than two percent of the total portfolio. Our approaches to formation of reserves for covering such losses are quite conservative and completely cover the level of non-performing loans. So the reserves formed at the bank account for 2.2 percent of total loan portfolio in national and by 2.4 percent in the international standards," Eremin said.
Some 51 percent of its shares belong to JSC VTB Bank (Russia) and 49 percent to AtaHolding.
In the Russian banking market VTB Group holds second place in all major indicators. Among Russian banks JSC VTB Bank has the highest rating of the international rating agencies Moody's Investors Service, and Standard & Poor's and Fitch.
Official exchange rate on Jan. 17 is 0.7844 AZN/USD.
Translated by E.A.
Edited by C.N.